Editorial | Sequester's almost here: Are we all lost?

John Locke of 'Lost' pushes the button ...

All this talk about what happens starting Friday when a series of across-the-board spending cuts will likely kick in could remind one of the early seasons of the popular TV series, "Lost."

Survivors of a plane crash on a tropical island discover an underground bunker containing a computer that needs a sequence of numbers entered every 108 minutes or, presumably, the world may end or at least everyone may die.

As long as the survivors enter the numbers on time, all seems to go reasonably well - at least as well as can be expected given the circumstances of trying to survive among hostile animals, a group of "others" who steal children and an island that seems to have a mind of its own.

Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are on their own bizarre island. And they have their own button to push - the one that prevents those automatic across-the-board budget cuts that neither Democrats nor Republicans wanted when they concocted their so-called "sequester idea" during a budget and debt ceiling crisis in December 2011.

It's looking like they're not going to reach any agreements this week, that the deadline will pass and spending the cuts will begin as planned starting on Friday, and our economy will suffer another self-inflicted wound.

Courier-Journal reporters Chris Otts and James Carroll reported on Sunday that a comprehensive list of all the cuts remains elusive, because not all agencies have released their plans. But they reported that as many as 21,484 jobs are at risk in Kentucky and another 17,957 in Indiana, among many other potential impacts.

In all, some $1.2 trillion in federal spending cuts are scheduled to phase in over the next decade, some starting right away.

But just how dire could the situation get?

Pretty dire, says President Obama, who has a majority of the public on his side right now.

The White House asserts that the cuts nationally threaten "hundreds of thousands of middle-class jobs, and cut vital services for children, seniors, people with mental illness and our men and women in uniform."

And air travel in the coming days, weeks, perhaps months, could become even less inviting than it already is. Officials are warning of flight delays and long security lines.

On CNN, he downplayed the impacts of the looming cuts, which the White House said were in the 10 percent range.

"I think the sequester happens and it will be in some ways a yawn because the histrionics that are coming from the president saying, 'Oh, we're going to shut down and get rid of meat inspectors' - I mean, is anybody not going to stand up and call his bluff on that ridiculousness?" Paul said.

The truth probably lies somewhere between the president and the senator.

There's no question that Congress and the president need to get a handle on the the nation's deficit and debt. But they need to do it without taking the wrecking ball to Medicare, Social Security and the basic health and safety functions we've come to expect from a 21st century government, while continuing to invest in our future.

This is no way to run a country, lurching from fiscal cliff to fiscal crisis, giving households and businesses one thing they seem to dislike the most: uncertainty.

Our leaders just need to come together to find a way to push that button, to find that balanced mix of new revenues and budget cuts to keep everything going reasonably well - as reasonably as anyone can expect. Otherwise we may indeed be lost.

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Editorial | Sequester's almost here: Are we all lost?

All this talk about what happens starting Friday when a series of across-the-board spending cuts will likely kick in could remind one of the early seasons of the popular TV series, 'Lost.'